After the Games

Olympic Architectural Heritage

John Gold and Margaret Gold

The Panathenian Stadium, Athens during the 1896 Olympics

There is a deep and abiding connection
between the Olympics and their host
cities. It started in the early 1890s when
the nascent International Olympic Committee
(IOC) decided that the modern Olympics
would not follow the ancient pattern of having
a permanent base, but would be an ambulatory
event that was effectively franchised to the
cities to which it was awarded. These ‘Olympic
cities’, which in principle could be anywhere
in the world, would supply the necessary
sports venues and infrastructure in return for
the right to stage the world’s most venerable
games.

For the first few Olympiads, organisers
made use of existing facilities or constructed
temporary structures to house participants
and stage the sports competitions. The
Olympics, however, quickly grew. The
participation of many more nations brought
far larger numbers of athletes and officials,
who were housed in sizeable ‘villages’.
The addition of new events from sports as
varied as cycling, gymnastics, shooting and
equestrianism led to a festival of increased
complexity and diversity that needed purpose-built
facilities.

Given the glare of publicity that the
Games attract, the organisers and their
architects understandably tend to treat the
occasion as an opportunity to create iconic
structures designed to impress visitors and
the world’s media – a strategy most recently
illustrated at Beijing 2008 by buildings such
as the ‘Water Cube’ Aquatics Centre, designed
by a Chinese-Australian consortium and
the ‘Bird’s Nest’ National Stadium, built by
Herzog and de Meuron to a creative concept
by Ai Weiwei. Frequently seen as lasting
advertisements for technical prowess and
creative design, such structures are permanent
features of the cityscape and often become
heritage sites of considerable significance. Yet
because the Olympics imposes demands that
are quite different from most other sporting
events, it is inevitable that host cities struggle
to find alternative uses for such venues after
the Games leave town.

STADIA

Nowhere is this truer than for the main
stadium. The IOC stipulates that there should
be an open-air arena with around an 80,000
seat capacity that stages the opening and
closing ceremonies and, in almost all cases,
is also used for the athletics competitions.
As the scene of many of the most memorable
moments as well as being a prime focus for
showpiece architecture, the Olympic stadium
is emblematic of the Games.

There are few other occasions when
these vast arenas are needed, however, and
their shape and layout are poorly suited to
the few mass spectator sports that might
conceivably capitalise on their size. Football
teams, for instance, complain about the lack of
atmosphere, with the presence of the running
track and the typically gentle rake of the seats
of an athletics stadium making the action on
the field feel distant for their spectators.

Without viable anchor tenants, their
formidable maintenance costs cannot be
borne without subsidy or by revenue from tourist visits and occasional concerts, often
leading to them becoming labelled the
‘limping white elephants’ of the Olympic
movement (Mangan, 2010). The experiences
of three host cities – each with a distinct story
to tell – point to the problems and challenges
encountered with Olympic stadia and their
legacy (Table 1).

TABLE 1 DETAILS OF SELECTED OLYMPIC STADIA

CITY

YEAR

STADIUM DETAILS

POST-GAMES USE

ATHENS

1896

Panathenian Stadium built 4th century BC
renovated 144AD
excavated 1869/70
renovated for first ‘modern’ Olympic Games in 1896

music
theatre
celebrations and festivals
heritage site
archery and marathon events at 2004 Olympics

2004

Spyros Louis Stadium built in 1982 for European Athletics
Championships
renovated and roof added 2002-04

athletics
cultural events
football (Panathinakos FC/AEK Athens)

BERLIN

1936

built in 1913 for 1916 Olympics
rebuilt for 1936 Olympics
listed in 1966
renovated for 1974 World Cup
reconfigured and roofed for 2006 World Cup

mixed-use stadium
athletics
football (Hertha BSC)

LONDON

1908

White City Stadium built for 1908 Olympics as part of
Franco-British White City Exhibition site at Shepherd’s Bush

Empire Stadium built for 1923 British Empire Exhibition and
later renamed Wembley Stadium

national football stadium
athletics
cultural and sporting events
demolished 2003

2012

Olympic Stadium completed 2011 for 2012 Olympics

planned reconfiguration for dual use (football/ athletics)

ATHENS

The city of Athens has hosted two Summer
Games, more than a century apart. For
the first, in 1896, the organisers used the
recently-excavated Panathenian stadium (or
Panathinaiko) to house the athletics events
and stage the major ceremonies. This had
the advantages of making valuable links
with the Games’ heritage and of successfully
accommodating crowds of more than 50,000 at
a modest cost – mainly incurred in renovating
the seating and adding a modern running track.

Yet even then it was outmoded; its
traditional elongated horseshoe shape with
accentuated curves at each end hindered
athletic performance and limited the nature
of subsequent sporting uses. Such uses of the
stadium, therefore, were largely retained for
reasons of symbolic connection – most notably,
hosting the archery competition and finish
of the marathon races for the 2004 Summer Games. Nevertheless, it has become a valued
feature of modern Athens. Standing with its
open end facing on to Vasileos Konstantinou
Avenue, one of the city’s main thoroughfares,
its gleaming marble seating and memorial
tablets to Olympic victors serve as a daily visual
reminder of the ancient and contemporary
significance of the Games for Greek society.

Rather less positive conclusions, however,
might be reached about the Olympic stadium at
Maroussi, a suburban district 9km north-east
of the city centre, which was renovated for the
2004 Games. It originated as the Spyros Louis
Stadium, a 75,000-seater venue built for the
1982 European Athletics Championships.

The Olympic Stadium, Maroussi, Athens, 2009

Wanting an ‘architectural landmark of
international recognition’, the organisers
approached the Spanish architect Santiago
Calatrava in March 2001 to submit a
redesign for the stadium. The key element of
the project involved installing double-tied
tubular steel arches, rising to a height of
72m, which support a 25,000m² laminated
glass roof. Although functionally designed
to protect spectators from the heat by
reflecting up to 90 per cent of the fierce
sunlight, the additions also served to
supply a high-tech image for the stadium.

The 2004 Games, however, were notorious
for a lack of forethought about their legacy. For
strategic reasons linked to Greece’s desire to
be able to stage an Olympics at any time, the
stadium will retain the capacity to host major
athletics competitions. Nevertheless, other
uses are sought to defray the costs. All three
of Athens’ major football teams (Olympiacos,
Panathinaikos and AEK Athens) have played
there at different times. Panathinaikos and
AEK Athens continue to do so, but neither
is entirely satisfied with using a stadium
designed for athletics, with the former
seeking to build its own ground and the latter
complaining about poor gates.

Between football fixtures, the stadium is
used for around 15-20 rock concerts per year
and receives a trickle of visitors, although
there are no visitor facilities or tours. The
stadium might represent iconic architecture
designed to portray the new Greece but it sits
unseen in an Olympic park, far removed from
the major circulation patterns of the city, that
is deserted at most times of day.

BERLIN

Heritage issues of a more awkward form
arise in relation to Berlin’s Olympic stadium,
which has never quite escaped its association
with ‘Hitler’s Games’ (Hart-Davies, 1986).
Located in a peripheral area to the west of the
city, the 1936 stadium grew from a predecessor
constructed in 1913 for the never-staged 1916
Olympiad. Werner March’s re-design of the
1913 stadium, originally designed by his father
Otto, provided for a 110,000-seater stadium
with a steel- and stone-clad structure that,
in deference to Nazi ideology, was given
a neo-classical facade with stone pillars
and colonnades. Memorialised in Leni
Riefenstahl’s film Olympia and immediately
familiar from television documentaries about
Nazi Germany, the Olympic stadium lay at the
heart of the Reichssportfeld – once the world’s
largest sports complex (below left).

It became a focus of attention throughout
Germany in the period leading up to and
including the 1936 Games for a regime that
appreciated and mobilised the opportunity for
powerful spectacle. After the Games, the city
and state gained the infrastructural legacy of a
sports complex and parade ground that could
be used for military purposes and for future
National Socialist celebrations.

Aerial view of the Reichssportfeld, Berlin, 1936, with
Olympic Stadium top right

Little damaged by the war, use of the
stadium after 1945 was controlled by the
occupying forces. A short phase of opening
the grounds ended when the British Army
requisitioned the Reichssportfeld. It then
remained closed to the public until transferred
to the city council (Magistrat) of Greater
Berlin in June 1949. After languishing for some
years, it was adopted as the home ground for
Hertha Berlin Football Club and was listed for
preservation as a historic structure in 1966.

While externally little changed, the
stadium was renovated internally by the
addition of spectator covering for the 1974
World Cup, with a partial roof designed by
Friedrich Wilhelm Krahe. Complaints from
international sports bodies and others about
the stadium’s dilapidated facilities and ailing
structural condition led to a debate that
included the possibility of demolition.

Its saviour was again a sporting mega-event.
In 1998, Germany’s gained the
nomination for the 2006 World Cup, with the
Olympic Stadium in Berlin accepted as its key
venue. After appraisals and an architectural
competition, the Hamburg-based architectural
practice gmp (Architekten von Gerkan, Marg
und Partner) won the contract to renovate the
stadium at a cost of €242 million (Meyer, 2010).
Only perhaps at this stage could the long-term
future of the Olympiastadion be guaranteed.

LONDON

The first of London’s three Olympic stadia
was less fortunate in this regard. The main
venue for the 1908 Games was the White City,
the first purpose-built Olympic stadium and
also the largest sports venue of its day. Its
enormous concrete bowl, designed by George
Wimpey, enclosed athletics and cycle tracks, a
100m swimming pool, platforms for wrestling
and gymnastics and even archery.
Called the White City after the gleaming
white stucco rendering applied to the Franco-British
Exhibition buildings (to which the
Olympics were attached), its foundation stone
was laid on 2 August 1907 and the stadium
was inaugurated on the opening day of the
adjoining exhibition (14 May 1908). It held
93,000 spectators, with 63,000 seated.

The White City Stadium, West London, 1908

Although the Games themselves were
regarded as successful, they left the less
desirable physical legacy of a huge and largely
unwanted stadium. Retained after 1908 despite
an initial decision to demolish it, the White
City was scarcely used for two decades before
passing to the Greyhound Racing Association
in 1926. It was then renovated, with its capacity
reduced from 93,000 to 80,000, the cycle track
removed and a greyhound track installed
over the existing running track. In 1932, the
reconfiguration of a running track to a new
440-yard circuit allowed the stadium’s use for
national and international athletics events.

On occasions, the White City did stage
large-scale sporting festivals, such as the
1934 British Empire Games and the 1935
International Games for the Deaf, and
provided a base for British athletics from
1933 onwards. However, when the athletics
events moved to their new home at Crystal
Palace in 1971, the stadium deteriorated. It
continued to host greyhound racing until 1984
but became an increasingly forlorn structure
that few mourned once it was demolished in
1985 to make way for offices for the British
Broadcasting Corporation and housing.

Little needs to be said about the city’s
second Olympic stadium at Wembley, which
was rarely regarded in the public mind as an
Olympic Stadium. Held against a background
of extreme austerity, the 1948 Games saw
the organisers make full use of whatever
was available. With custom-built stadia out
of the question, they designated the Empire
Stadium at Wembley, originally built for the
1924 British Empire Exhibition, as the Olympic
stadium even though it had not staged an
athletics competition for more than 20 years.

Once the 1948 Games were over, the
stadium returned to its use as a greyhound
racing venue (1927-1998), but more
importantly as the national football stadium
staging major domestic and international
matches, as well as providing ideal facilities
for pioneering outdoor arena rock concerts
in the 1970s. It was demolished in 2002-3
and replaced by a purpose-built football
stadium designed by Foster and Partners
and HOK Sport. The lengthy delay before
it could open in March 2007 was due
more to indecision about its purpose than
constructional problems, with attempts
to combine athletics and football in a
single stadium eventually scrapped in
favour of a dedicated football stadium.

The Olympic Stadium, London, June 2011

For the 2012 Olympic Games, London
promised a utilitarian purpose-built athletics
stadium (left) which after the Games would become
a multi-purpose venue that included athletics
at its core. Designed by Populous
(formerly HOK Sport), the 2012 stadium
addressed the ‘white elephant’ problem by
combining a core structure that could find
permanent usage with a temporary steel-and-concrete
top tier for 55,000 spectators
that would be removed after the Games. This
would downsize the stadium to 25,000 seats,
with the top tier, as originally hoped, possibly
reused in a stadium elsewhere.

The visual impact of the stadium was to
be provided by a fabric wrap which would
be draped around the stadium. This fell
victim to spending cuts at the end of 2010,
but was reinstated after it seemed likely
that the cost could be borne by sponsorship.
Understandably, the success of this approach
to stadium design rests on finding an anchor
tenant that would allow the stadium to be used
profitably while still permitting occasional
athletics meetings. At the time of writing [December, 2011],
however, the decision to retain the stadium
in public hands as a mixed-use venue without
having first found such a tenant means that,
despite all endeavours, yet another main
Olympic stadium seems destined to join its
immediate predecessors as a white elephant.*

CONCLUSION

The stadia discussed here show in microcosm
the challenges faced by all Olympic cities as
they reconcile the demands of the Olympic
movement, the desire to house the Games
in a memorable fashion and the provision of
a viable post-Games future for the facilities
delivered. London has tried to pre-empt
these future problems for its Olympic sites by
engaging in the most comprehensive exercise
in legacy planning yet attempted. However, the
vagaries of post-Games market conditions will
impact on these plans in ways that could well
call into question the architectural heritage
that will result from these Games.

* Editor's note: as of July 2012, the deadline for the submission of tenancy bids for the Olympic Stadium had been extended and it now seems unlikely that the stadium's future will be decided before October 2012. For the latest information, see the website of the London Legacy Development Corporation.

The Building Conservation Directory, 2012

Author

JOHN GOLD is a professor of urban historical
geography in the School of Social Sciences
and Law at Oxford Brookes University.

MARGARET GOLD is a senior lecturer in
arts and heritage management at London
Metropolitan University and an associate of
the university’s Cities Institute.

They have
published extensively on the urban impact
of the Olympic Games and are the editors of
Olympic Cities: City Agendas, Planning, and
the World’s Games, 1896-2016 (2010). Their
most recent work is a four-volume set on
The Making of Olympic Cities for Routledge’s
Major Works series.